ALOHA! The Polynesian Resort Information Thread: September 2012

[mickeynut1]

Hello everyone,

We just got back from an amazing trip to the Poly from June 4th through the 12th...I got so much help from these boards in preparing for our trip that I thought I would try to contribute back some thoughts from our stay...

Thanks for your review.....glad you had a nice stay . The Poly is our favorite resort and we can't wait to get back in December .

The resort pool was packed most days and it was hard to find even one chair. We did see a family get on at the TTC dressed in swimwear with a bag of pool toys and a cooler. I do have a pic. Lol! The lifeguards didn't seem to mind. Also there was a group taking up 3 tables from CBR that decided to spend an afternoon at the Poly pool. They were very clear about it. It's just annoying when you have no where to sit and couldn't really swim at the resort you paid for. We ended up going to the quiet pool.

Overall we had a good vacation and may stay at the Poly again.

Glad you had a great stay. I agree with the pp that I, too, would have said something about the non-Poly guests at the pool. It's not fair to those paying those rates to have to share the pool with guests from other resorts .

 

[monorailsilver]

Good gravy. Can nothing remain somewhat sanitary??? UGH!!!! I wish they'd do away with the mugs. Also, the bar is the ONE place in Disney for the adults, suppose the kids will be sitting at the bar now, grubby, filthy mugs in hand.

When we were there last week some deviant children were stealing Dole Whip from the machine with their mugs. Boy and a girl in their mid/early teens.

I'm def going to complain, and loudly, about this one.

Well at least if the kids are at the pool bar they will be chlorinated!!!

And the kids stealing a Dole Whip, shame on those parents that allowed that. Dumb question, are you sure they didn't pay for it & were trying to be 'green' & not use another cup for them.

Sorry the kids ruined your trip a bit but remember you were a kid/teen once as well & they don't always follow the rules. I know I didn't & I am a rule follower now & get annoyed when others don't.

 

[DznyCrzy11]

I have decided to stay in Fiji, thanks to you.
I am requesting 3 rd floor marina side, but will put Tokelau as my second option

You will love it!! The first time we stayed at Poly we didn't put in a request and stayed on the 2nd floor marina side. The 2nd time we requested Fiji marina side we were on the 1st floor, this last time we got 3rd floor which we liked much better!! One afternoon when it was rainy we sat out on the balcony enjoying the view while listening to the resort music, it was very relaxing!! Oh, and once the refurbishment is done on Fiji, from my understanding, some of the rooms on the 3rd floor will have king beds, hopefully they are also on marina view side.
Tokelau seems to be a good one too. I have thought of staying there as well as Samoa but always go back to Fiji.

I would've complained about the people from the other resorts, especially if they made it obvious. It is not fair to those of us that pay a premium to stay there. The rules are very clear concerning pool use.

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

Same here!!!! That is not fair to the resort guests who paid to stay at a particular resort. They even say that "pool hopping" is not allowed. I hope future plans include a gated area to where you have to use your room key to access the area.

 

[robinbutterfly]

I agree 100%! I am booked for the Poly in Oct, and was worried about the pool possibly being closed as well, so I emailed Steve (I think that's his name) from the tikiman site, and he said the pool won't have anything done to it till Jan.

Oh good!! We are planning on doing a whole day at the pool in November!

 

[kaysmommie]

I would've complained about the people from the other resorts, especially if they made it obvious. It is not fair to those of us that pay a premium to stay there. The rules are very clear concerning pool use.

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

Actually I did. The lifeguards knew about the party of 14 from CBR already. They said "It's summer in Florida, oh well." I agree with you on it not being fair to Poly guests. Swim where you pay to stay. I did the online survey and also mentioned it to guest services.

 

[bluejasmine]

Actually I did. The lifeguards knew about the party of 14 from CBR already. They said "It's summer in Florida, oh well." I agree with you on it not being fair to Poly guests. Swim where you pay to stay. I did the online survey and also mentioned it to guest services.

I would have gone to management it sounds like the lifeguards just didn't want to ask the party of 14 from another resort to leave...

ASMU/POR Dec 16-22, 2012 & CR Sept 8-15, 2013

 

[mickeynut1]

Actually I did. The lifeguards knew about the party of 14 from CBR already. They said "It's summer in Florida, oh well." I agree with you on it not being fair to Poly guests. Swim where you pay to stay. I did the online survey and also mentioned it to guest services.

That's terrible that lifeguards didn't do anything about it .

 

[Mousemommy1]

Actually I did. The lifeguards knew about the party of 14 from CBR already. They said "It's summer in Florida, oh well." I agree with you on it not being fair to Poly guests. Swim where you pay to stay. I did the online survey and also mentioned it to guest services.

That is so irritating. To me, that is no different than someone at the Poly going to swim in the pool at the Waldorf Astoria....you are not paying to stay there, so why would you be able to swim there. Or likewise, just coming from your house to swim at a hotel.

I can only imagine that that scenario happens as well. I really don't understand why it is so difficult for them to implement a wristband system like at SAB (which works wonderfully).

I am no snob or anything, but as a consumer, I would be mad about not being able to enjoy amenities that I paid for because they were being used up by people who weren't.

Off soapbox...

 

[HappyMomma]

We just returned from our 4th stay at the Polynesian June 3-9 in Tokelau and had mostly the same experience as you. Plumbing issues twice, one day no running water at all until evening.And another day toilet pipe leaked all over our bathroom. We were also on the third floor but opposite end of the building. Tropcial storm Andrea did put a damper on two days of our trip as well. But we made the best of it. We thought of extending our stay but my husband had to get back to work.

Everything else was great! We had breakfast and dinner at 'Ohana and it was awesome as always. Kona dinner was excellent. We did eat at Captain Cook's a few times and thought the food was very good there as well for a quick service. Loved the aloha pork sandwich and dole whip for dessert. Pool bar was excellent, we had piña colavas a couple times there.

The resort pool was packed most days and it was hard to find even one chair. We did see a family get on at the TTC dressed in swimwear with a bag of pool toys and a cooler. I do have a pic. Lol! The lifeguards didn't seem to mind. Also there was a group taking up 3 tables from CBR that decided to spend an afternoon at the Poly pool. They were very clear about it. It's just annoying when you have no where to sit and couldn't really swim at the resort you paid for. We ended up going to the quiet pool.

Overall we had a good vacation and may stay at the Poly again.

The pool seating was insane! I had to stalk until I found a table, And then I felt SO bad for a family with a baby that I told them to come sit with us.

I think resort pool hopping is a huge part of the problem. I saw a family in the bathroom by Cooks changing out of their swim gear and dripping water everywhere. No way you'd be changing in the lavatory if you had a room there.

 

[mickeynut1]

I think resort pool hopping is a huge part of the problem. I saw a family in the bathroom by Cooks changing out of their swim gear and dripping water everywhere. No way you'd be changing in the lavatory if you had a room there.

I agree.

 

[DznyCrzy11]

That is so irritating. To me, that is no different than someone at the Poly going to swim in the pool at the Waldorf Astoria....you are not paying to stay there, so why would you be able to swim there. Or likewise, just coming from your house to swim at a hotel.

I can only imagine that that scenario happens as well. I really don't understand why it is so difficult for them to implement a wristband system like at SAB (which works wonderfully).

I am no snob or anything, but as a consumer, I would be mad about not being able to enjoy amenities that I paid for because they were being used up by people who weren't.

Off soapbox...

I completely agree with you!!! So far, knock on wood, the past 3 years we have stayed there in September it has not been too bad, hopefully that's the case with this year as well!!!

The pool seating was insane! I had to stalk until I found a table, And then I felt SO bad for a family with a baby that I told them to come sit with us.

I think resort pool hopping is a huge part of the problem. I saw a family in the bathroom by Cooks changing out of their swim gear and dripping water everywhere. No way you'd be changing in the lavatory if you had a room there.

I agree, the pool hopping issue is a big problem. I wish they would just make that a gated area and require a room key for entry. Isn't that what they are doing at GF?

 

[ocalla]

Pros and cons if online check in please, Nyone. I have never done it at BC, but am thinking about it for Poly.

TIA

 

[fla4fun]

Pros and cons if online check in please, Nyone. I have never done it at BC, but am thinking about it for Poly.

TIA

I have done online check in every trip since they started offering it.

I think the main negative is if you are very selective about your room location If you have room requests that will make or break your vacation, it is better to check in at the front desk so you can review the available inventory and find the room that best meets your needs.

I make very general requests, if any, and I have had them met doing online check in. The main advantage I feel about online check in is that I am the one who enters the credit card info. No one sees or handles my card but me. And if there are any resort wide computer upgrades, your info is already in the system, not being written down on a piece of paper to be entered later. I checked in during a computer upgrade last year, and since I had done check in online, I did not have to go back to the front desk later to get a fully functioning KTTW.

I have already done online check in for my next stay, at the Poly.

 

[Tinkerjenn]

Hi. We leave for Poly in 12 days & am really concerned about crowds at pool, do they really let anyone in? Has anyone seen management try to enforce this at all? We are splurging for CL & would hate to have this ruin our vacation (we plan on lots of down time at the pool).

 

[DznyCrzy11]

Pros and cons if online check in please, Nyone. I have never done it at BC, but am thinking about it for Poly.

TIA

We have done online check in the past two years we have stayed at the Poly and both times we requested Fiji longhouse and our request was met both times. So far, I have nothing bad to say about online check in. It's gone smoothly for us and it was nice to arrive and the CM had everything ready and waiting for us!

 

[DznyCrzy11]

I have decided to stay in Fiji, thanks to you.
I am requesting 3 rd floor marina side, but will put Tokelau as my second option

Here is the view we had at Fiji last year. We were on the 3rd floor, marina view. If you were facing the Fiji longhouse from the GCH, our room was the furtherest room on the right, all the way at the end.

<a href="http://s1338.photobucket.com/user/DznyCrzy11/media/Snapbucket/BFCCADB1-orig_zpscaf138ca.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1338.photobucket.com/albums/o693/DznyCrzy11/Snapbucket/BFCCADB1-orig_zpscaf138ca.jpg" border="0" alt="View from balcony photo BFCCADB1-orig_zpscaf138ca.jpg"/></a>

 

[DznyCrzy11]

I have decided to stay in Fiji, thanks to you.
I am requesting 3 rd floor marina side, but will put Tokelau as my second option

Ok........let's try this again!!!

Here is the view we had at Fiji last year. We were on the 3rd floor, marina view. If you were facing the Fiji longhouse from the GCH, our room was the furtherest room on the right, all the way at the end.

 

[Circusgirl]

Hi. We leave for Poly in 12 days & am really concerned about crowds at pool, do they really let anyone in? Has anyone seen management try to enforce this at all? We are splurging for CL & would hate to have this ruin our vacation (we plan on lots of down time at the pool).

My only busy season stay at the Poly was in late June of 2011 and the lifeguards were checking room keys and giving out wristbands at the pool.

 

[Mayhem1976]

I agree 100%! I am booked for the Poly in Oct, and was worried about the pool possibly being closed as well, so I emailed Steve (I think that's his name) from the tikiman site, and he said the pool won't have anything done to it till Jan.

Thanks, I'm still a little worried! I'll have to see what discounts come out for when we go.
If the pool is closed do they allow you to use another resorts?

 

[sandym718]

The pool seating was insane! I had to stalk until I found a table, And then I felt SO bad for a family with a baby that I told them to come sit with us.

I think resort pool hopping is a huge part of the problem. I saw a family in the bathroom by Cooks changing out of their swim gear and dripping water everywhere. No way you'd be changing in the lavatory if you had a room there.

I don't disagree that pool hopping is a major problem, as is the lack of seating. But my daughter and I changed in there once. Now of course we sat awhile and dried off thoroughly outside first so we weren't dripping water everywhere! But it was our check in day and our room wasn't ready. Both kids really wanted to swim so we let them, with the condition that DD couldn't get her hair wet as we had nowhere to shower yet. She had a hair braiding appointment at the GF salon late afternoon. Room still wasn't ready, so we had to change quickly there. But we were paying Poly guests!!